REI CEO tapped to lead U.S. Department of Interior

Sally Jewel is no stranger to male dominated worlds. She’s risen to the top in the oil industry, the banking industry, and the outdoor industry, where she currently serves as the CEO of REI. Now she’s on the cusp of penetrating another: On February 6, President Obama tapped her to lead the U.S. Department of Interior.

Jewell won’t be the first female secretary of Interior. That honor goes to Gale Norton, a conservative republican whom critics often referred to as “James Watt in a skirt”.

(DIVA NOTE: Watt notoriously resigned after serving as Ronald Reagan’s Interior Secretary from 1981 to 1983. His controversial tenure was marked by hostility to environmentalism and enthusiastic support of development and use of public lands for grazing, natural resource extraction, and other money making enterprises.)

Managing vast holdings of public lands (one in every five acres in the U.S. is managed by the DOI)

Managing hundreds of dams and aqueducts in the West

Indian affairs

Conservation programs

Scientific Research

Arts and Museums

Climate Change

Wildlife management

Energy Resource management

Offshore drilling

Mining

Historic preservation

National parks

What does this mean for the newest Interior Secretary? A lot.

We’re at a crossroads in public land use and management. Controversy over natural gas extraction via fracking (a process that uses vast amounts of water to break up underground shale and release gas reserves) has reached a high pitch.

Climate change is widely recognized as being real, and, at least in part, human-caused (sorry Glenn Beck). Real leadership is necessary to reduce carbon emissions. The DOI supports important scientific research that is critical for informing policy makers.

There are several endangered species success stories under our belts (hello, wolves), but more that need attention like grizzly bears and wolverines.

More, we need to have a nationwide discussion about public lands management and access. Our country was founded on natural resource extraction, and the policies in place ensure that will always be a component of public land management.

As the CEO of REI, Jewell has demonstrated a commitment to the outdoors through the company’s myriad conservation programs.

An outdoorswoman who lists mountaineering and kayaking among her hobbies, Jewell served on the “National Parks Second Century Commission,” whose goal was to help shape the future of the National Parks System. She has received several awards recognizing her work in environmental conservation.